Streetlight Interference
by Kalasin
Summary: Kenshin is a depressed former assassin who comes back home to find someone new to him in town. And THAT someone's about to find out just what may become of fallen angels when you read to them. AU KK
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

**Hello, people! As you can probably tell, I'm really bored over here, so I just write and write. Don't worry, Movie Star chapter 11 will make its way into the silver screen—er, I mean, your computer screen soon enough! Meanwhile, just sit back and relax with Streetlight Interference, okay? This'll actually be pretty short; only less than ten chapters or so.**

**Disclaimer: I definitely do not own RK**

Chapter One

When Kaoru had first seen him, he'd been standing on the balcony with the full moon on his left, leaving the rest of his face in darkness. His golden eyes had been scanning the view below, had been searching the diamond lights of the city as if looking for the faintest shimmer of hope.

When Kaoru had first seen him, she had thought he was a fallen angel.

She hadn't been far from wrong.

Kaoru had assumed he was just another dinner guest who'd come out for a fresh breath of air, away for a while from the twinkling jazz, the dancing lights, and beguiling sighs. She had put her hands on the railing, eager enough to give him his own space as she began to lose herself to the silence of the night.

"You are…Kamiya Kaoru…?" The uncertainty in his voice had been clear, and she had seen him examining her face with curiosity. She had given him a small nod, not knowing what else to do. Seeing that she did not seem to recognize him, his lips had formed a slight smile. "My name is Himura Kenshin." They had shaken hands briefly. "I believe your friend Misao Makimachi called you by your name in exasperation quite loudly, right before the second course was served, if I am not mistaken," he had explained.

She had laughed then, a clear and musical sound. "She did that, didn't she?" She had frowned and turned away from the view. "I'm sorry, but I guess I didn't notice you in there." "Ah," he had said, taking a step closer. "I was at one of the tables near the window. Not very far from yours, actually."

"I see." She had said, and had not known what else to say. She had begun to wonder who he really was, and how anyone like her could've failed to notice someone like him who clearly stood out with that crimson-colored hair held in a high ponytail and those searching amber eyes. Out there in the balcony, the rest of his profile had seemed to blend with the night.

This time he'd caught her staring. She'd supposed that made them even. "Are you visiting town?" She'd asked, touching the sapphire pendant on her necklace. He'd placed his hands in the pocket of his slacks, looking up into the night sky. "I suppose you could say that." He'd seen the question in her eyes and had paused, as if debating before he finally answered.

"I was born here, but I've been traveling up until recently." He'd raised a hand to brush away his bangs, and she'd seen the weariness in his actions.

"I see," she'd said with a smile. "Well, welcome home then."

**S.I.1.**

He'd been curious about the dojo he had seen a few streets away from his house, a brown and white establishment that had not been there when he last had been. What was even more curious was that Sano had offered to drive him there to see it, saying he knew the owner.

Kaoru had smiled at him brightly the moment he had stepped inside, her shinai in one hand. "Like my dojo?" She'd asked, laughing at the surprised expression on his face. Soon he was sitting down and listening attentively to her talk about her father, their fighting principles and the altogether overwhelming love she had for the Kamiya Kasshin.

He had asked to watch her practice along with her students, and Kenshin had found himself satisfied if not completely impressed by her skills. Still, he had decided against telling her any of his observations. He was a simple man who did not know of such things.

He found himself thinking that more and more.

**S.I.1.**

He was surprised by her eagerness to "show him around," convincing him that she was sure he would be glad to see the changes in the town since he'd last visited. Sano had told him that it was a normal "Tanuki thing," and that he had nothing to worry about.

Sano wasn't wrong.

She had led him to the park, and glanced mischievously at the fallen leaves under the trees. "When we first moved here," she told him, throwing a handful of flame-colored leaves up into the air, "It was autumn, too. The first thing I did was run here and dance with all the leaves." She threw another bunch into the air, twirling about as they fell like some graceful dancer clad in denim.

He'd smiled.

"Would you like to join me?" She asked the question while holding out her hand.

He had shaken his head. The falling leaves remind me of raining blood, he'd wanted to say bitterly. After all, someone like him couldn't take joy in such trivial things after all he'd been through. He leaned back against a tree and urged her to continue. He satisfied himself with watching under the shadows.

**S.I.1.**

"Did you hear about me here, then?"

Sano put down his can of beer before taking a swig. He gave the redhead a sidelong glance, wishing suddenly that the couch they were sitting on would open up and swallow him whole; he could feel the darkness from Kenshin emanating like a somber song playing heavily, a black cloud shrouding them both from the seemingly joyous sounds coming from the music video they'd been watching.

"Look, Kenshin—"

"Just the truth, Sano. Please."

The truth…Sano supposed that after all the lies and the broken dreams his friend had experienced he deserved it after all.

"We…We heard about how a new assassin had been roaming around soon after you left here." He gathered the courage to look into those deep pools of gold—pools of depression now. "He was…rumored to be merciless…"

"Merciless," Kenshin confirmed. "As well as fast and efficient enough," he added. Sano cleared his throat, his eyes wandering to the popcorn he'd prepared. Tonight was supposed to be a Total Pig Out Night, and he'd especially planned it to cheer Kenshin up, hoping he'd remember their younger days together when even politics and its old, wrinkled hands could not grasp either of them in its deadly grip.

"I'm going to bed," Kenshin said, standing up.

Sano didn't try to stop him.

**S.I.1**

The next time he spotted Kamiya Kaoru was in the bookstore.

He had not seen her for a couple of weeks. In fact, he hadn't been seeing anyone except Sano for the last few days, seeing as that was inevitable since they lived in the same house. He had peered over Kaoru's shoulder to see what she'd been reading and she'd yelped, dropping the book.

He hadn't laughed like that in a long time, but she didn't know that.

"O. Henry?" He'd asked, returning the anthology of short stories to her.

She'd nodded. "And what about you? What've you been reading lately?" She'd quirked an eyebrow. "Or have you even been reading at all? I highly doubt Sanosuke has anything other than Playboy in that house, you know."

He'd walked with her to the next rack of books.

"I believe he's got some Archie comic books. I know I lent him my copy of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar a while back. I do believe he's lost it." Her laugh was something he was beginning to like hearing. "Come over at the dojo," she'd said on their way out of the store. "I think you might like some stuff I have."

She hadn't been joking, but still he was surprised to see Machiavelli's works sitting on her bookshelf, the cover old and smelling of long gone days thrown out against the bitter wind of the past. "It was my father's," she'd explained. "He was a very wide reader."

He waved the book in the air. "And he liked Machiavelli?"

She'd shaken her head, grinning. "More like loathed him. Still, he must've read that thing a million times." She had surprised him when she had reached out and held his hand, leading him to another one of her bookshelves, showing him all her favorites like a child showing off an artwork she'd done in school.

She'd begged him to let her read out loud, and sighing in defeat, he had relented, smiling as she opened her old faerie tale book, her voice hushing to a whisper when Beauty first saw the Beast, or rising out loud when the monsters were struck down in another tale, her exuberance wrapping around him like a faerie tale itself, enchanting him and yet warning him of a million mysterious ways in which things could go hellishly long.

Soon after, he'd looked at his watch and told her he needed to go.

Still, he wished he could've stayed longer.

**A/N:**

**Chapter two's already underway. :D Also, I'm looking for a beta reader—for my original stories, that is. Know anyone who can help? Please tell me.**

**Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello! Here's chapter two! And yes, I changed the summary. This fic just doesn't want to seem to be summarized…!**

**Disclaimer: I really, really, do not own RK.**

**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE! (Don't ask…just read…or not….)**

Chapter Two

"_There is a grief that can't be spoken._

_There is a pain that goes on and on—_

_Empty chairs and empty tables—_

_Now my friends are dead and gone._

_Here they talked of revolution._

_Here they sang about tomorrow_

_And tomorrow never came._

_Oh, my friends, my friends,_

_Forgive that I live_

_And you are gone,_

_**There's a grief that can't be spoken.**_

_**There's a pain that goes on and on**."_

_--Les Miserables (Play)_

**S.I.2.**

"I hate you,"

She delighted when she saw him raise an eyebrow. She reached out bravely, letting her fingers slide through the ends of his ponytail. "You have nicer hair than me!" She was fascinated at how humor suddenly seemed to spark in his secretive eyes and how he smiled at her as well, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly at first and very slowly, as if it was something he was no longer used to doing, arousing all the more her curiosity and her determination to cheer this still almost-stranger, almost-acquaintance of hers up.

She invited him over more often now, simply out of boredom more than anything. They sat side by side in the mini-library of her home, the dust motes dancing in the light yellow sunshine that streamed in through her windows. The atmosphere held almost no tension now, so unlike the night she'd first seen him, alone and brooding in the balcony with only Hecate for a companion.

She was beginning to love the way he would sit silently beside her as she read aloud, not knowing whether his mind was wandering elsewhere or pondering whatever she was reading at that moment, but each time she was almost about to close the book in fallen hopes that he was even paying attention, he would make a comment about the chapter, or chuckle at the way she'd cleverly done Josiah Amberley's voice, surprising her almost out of her wits.

He on the other hand, appreciated the joy that seemed to emanate from her presence, the way she seemed passionate about anything under the sun; it reminded him of himself long ago, reminded him of all the lost smiles and hopes he had carried around him before the sword.

That day had been no different. She had been reading Barrett Browning to him and was almost finished when she suddenly stopped and suggested some drinks in a hoarse voice. Soon they were sipping tea on her front porch, the beverage seemingly quenching the thirst his companion had acquired from all the reading.

"So what did you do for a living? Before you came back here, I mean. Sano said you'd resigned."

The question had snapped him out of his reverie, and he'd almost faltered, almost fallen into the verge of lying completely. Her blue eyes were watching him intently, all the innocence in the world captured and frozen in time in two, azure pools.

He stood up and left without a word.

**S.I.2.**

It was funny how he would wake up some days, think life had to get better, sit down to watch television, and suddenly find himself sinking into melancholy. The news would come on and every political statement was like a jab to his ribs, every crime scene shown a slap to the head; even he wondered how Sano could bear with the deafening silence he screamed with his mouth, wondered if perhaps he should move out. Only the knowledge that this would offend his friend more kept him from even mentioning it.

Instead, he kept this thought inside along with the many other brain-wracking nightmares torturing his conscience.

The doorbell rang one day, and as Sano was busy trying to arrange his hair into a mohawk, Kenshin opened the door to a humming Kaoru, holding a copy of the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" DVD; she went inside without waiting for him to say anything and kicked the door to the bathroom as a signal, Kenshin supposed, to Sano that she had arrived and would be popping the movie into the player with or without him.

"Do you do this often?"

His voice had startled her as she started scanning the main menu on the DVD, and she turned around to face him with a slight smirk. "But of course," she told him, as if he was asking an absurd question. "What friendship is complete without the Essential DVD Day?" He was taken aback by her attitude, surprised nonetheless that she did not even mention what had happened a few days ago; as if that had been another Kaoru and another him, in an alternate universe that was not to be called upon except in the dim corners of his mind.

Soon Sanosuke came out of the bathroom, almost swelling with pride with his hair and all of a sudden defensive when Kaoru burst out in laughter, saying he looked more like a porcupine in a T-shirt than a trying-hard gangster in his own living room as Kenshin watched both of them, the small grin on his face the only contribution to the scene, the scene which looked to him as just that: something he could watch and listen to, but never be a part of.

**S.I.2.**

It turned out Sano wanted to watch an entire dozen of DVD's, and it was already late into the night when Kenshin realized she had fallen asleep, her head accidentally leaning on his shoulder and her raven hair spilling over like rich, black ink.

He'd turned to Sano, who was smirking, "Enemy at the Gates" forgotten long, long ago. "Should I move her?" Kenshin was surprised at how helpless his voice sounded. Sano shook his head. "Nah, she'll prefer that we wake her up." He bent over and started to shake Kaoru's shoulder gently before Kenshin could interrupt.

"Hey, Jou-chan. Time to go bye-bye; you're all pooped out, ya know."

"Shut it, Sano." Kaoru gave the redhead a sleepy smile as she hoisted herself off the couch. "Sorry for leaning on you, Kenshin. Guess I'll read to you again tomorrow."

He pretended not to feel Sano's eyes on him as he closed the door after her retreating form.

"You like her."

"So do you."

"I like her as a _friend_."

"So do I."

"Yeah, but there's something else, isn't there?"

Kenshin turned the lights on and shut the TV off. So there _was_ a twinkle in Sano's eye. His friend was leaning on the doorframe, watching as he bent down to pick up the carelessly-thrown DVD cases and empty junk food packages.

"Do you really think I'd entertain the thought of something like that?"

"I don't see why not!"

He could hear Sano's footsteps behind him as he made his way to the kitchen, his hands full of dirty plates and whatnot. How was he supposed to know that she ate almost as much as Sano did?

Kenshin moved gracefully, throwing the trash into the bin and piling the dirty dishes into the sink before reaching out for the sponge. When he answered, his voice was like a melody of cold, melancholy notes, drifting from his lips and into Sano's ears.

"I was a former assassin, Sanosuke. I asked that I use my skills for my beliefs; I asked that my sword be wielded and blood be shed; I asked that I involve myself with a woman once, and I received this scar and her death by the same sword afterwards; I asked to continue fighting for just a little more until the so-called victory was almost within reach after so many deaths." His hands had not stopped washing the dishes all throughout.

"After all that, I cannot ask to stain such an innocent person like her. I cannot ask for something I clearly do not deserve."

He had finished rinsing by the time he'd said, "Not deserve," and even by that time he'd expected Sano to have walked out, shaking his head. Instead, the man had managed to stop leaning on the doorway. He was now leaning on the refrigerator.

"All right, but don't ever let _her_ hear that, or she'll have you black and blue with her shinai faster than you can say 'this unworthy one.'"

"Well, 'this unworthy one' wasn't kidding."

"I wasn't either. Just go for it, Kenshin."

"Why should I?"

"Because you need something like that in your life—you need someone like _her_, Kenshin. God, man! Half the time you're mulling over the past, locked up in your room. You skip meals more than anyone on a diet, you rarely laugh anymore, and you don't even tell me anything anymore, either!"

"I've only known her for around three weeks, Sanosuke."

"I didn't say run to her house and dash her to the nearest church to marry her, Kenshin. I'm telling you to give yourself another chance!"

"I already said I don't deserve this kind of thing."

"Yeah, well…Regardless of whether you are deserving or not, it doesn't matter. Because _she_ is."

**S.I.2.**

She grinned when she saw him enter the mini-library and patted the space beside her on the carpet when he approached. He smiled slightly at the book she was holding. "Harry Potter…?" he asked.

She opened the book. "And the Half-Blood Prince."

"And I'm supposed to understand the—" he lifted the book from her lap to glance at the cover. "Sixth book in the series when I've never read any of the previous installments?"

She shook her head at him and wagged a finger in front of his face. "Never question my skills in explaining the Wizarding world, Himura, or you might wish the Death Eaters had taken you instead."

**S.I.2.**

It took them four days to finally finish it.

She didn't notice the pensive look on his face as she closed the book with a satisfied sigh. "Do you think he's evil?" she asked him.

He turned his head to look at her as she sat with her heels underneath her on the carpet. She went on talking. "I mean, he _did_ kill Dumbledore, didn't he? But do you think he's a traitor? I always thought he was a nasty character, you know? But I never expected him to be an assassin—Where are you—?"

He had already walked out before she could finish.

From then on, she never had to wonder what he had done for a living.

**S.I.2.**

He was surprised to find her in Sano's living room the next day, right before breakfast.

"I thought I'd read this to you," she said as he sat down next to her with a bewildered look on his face.

And before he could say another word, she had already begun reading to him about Jean Valjean.

**A/N: Okay, well…that's it for now! Please, please leave me a review, and don't hesitate to expound on your opinions. I would love to get constructive criticism rather than just the usual one-liners, although those are okay, too—It's just that it would be really helpful if you guys asked questions, or gave suggestions. If you guys don't get something, I'd be more than willing to explain or have discussions with you.**

**Flames? Well like I always say, so long as your flame makes sense and does not consist solely of cuss words that won't help me write better, well then go ahead.**

**Okidoks? **

**All right, see you guys then and take care!**


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